


A Rose By Any Other Name

by Behind_The_Hood



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Justice League - All Media Types, Superman - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Gender Dysphoria, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Male to Female Characters, mentions of periods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 16:12:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13127211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Behind_The_Hood/pseuds/Behind_The_Hood
Summary: Clark can't hear Bruce's heartbeat. It's been a week and League are worried. The Bat and Bruce Wayne haven't been seen in a week. Alfred says it's merely a high priority case, but he can't just sit around and do nothing.





	A Rose By Any Other Name

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first story I've written in years and the first I've ever posted here. I'm still trying to figure this website out, please bare with me. Constructive criticism welcome.

Superman and the other Justice League members were worried about Batman. Alfred told them a week ago that Batman wouldn’t be able to answer any League calls or conduct any League business due to working on a high priority case, and that he didn’t wish to be disturbed. Not a day later they had all seen on the news that Bruce Wayne hadn’t been heard from since the following day of Alfred’s message.

That Alfred called instead of Batman was suspicious enough, but for Bruce to be missing while Batman was working on a high priority case was worrisome. So the League called Batman, but his communicator was down and the Cave wasn’t taking calls. The worry rose when Superman couldn’t hear Bruce’s heartbeat anywhere. They held an unofficial, informal vote and unanimously agreed that they should go to the Batcave and find out more about this case then go looking for the Bat.

When they started to arrive at the Cave, Superman could hear multiple voices in the central room, where Bruce kept the Batcomputer and all of his private files stored. He and Diana shared a look and informed the rest of the League to err on the side of caution. When they were close enough Superman used his x-ray vision and saw five…females in the Cave. Two were fighting off to the side, not gently, one was watching the two fighting, one was at the computers typing, the other was standing by the one at the computers.

“Five females, unidentified. Seem to be hacking into the Batcomputer. Grab them, and then we’ll assess the situation from there. We don’t know why they’re down here, but it can’t be good.”

\----------

Suddenly she’s grabbed from behind and a large hand is placed over her mouth. She’s moved away from the computers and turned to see the others had been grabbed as well. Her youngest is the only one struggling, viciously at that. Flash looks worried as he holds the child, shooting Wonder Woman a look for help.

Superman speaks from behind her, talking over the youngest’s muffled voice. “I’m going to uncover your mouth and you’re going to explain who you are and why you’re here.” His voice is low and threatening in her ear, the rumble of his timbre reverberating from his chest and into her back. She fights a shiver of arousal. The hand is carefully removed from her mouth. Her face turns to her youngest.

“Stop moving,” she commands. Her youngest stops fighting, but glares with murder in her eyes at all the League members.

“Who are you?” Wonder Woman demands from where she is holding her second oldest hostage.

She shares a look with each of her kids. The oldest and third oldest vote to tell them, the second oldest and the youngest vote not to tell them, stubbornly at that. Looks like she’s the tie breaker. The question here would be: does she want to face the embarrassment and get the extra help or would she rather take on the League? She could do it, but does she want to go that far to keep her secret?

The hand is back on her mouth before she can decide. She’s apparently been silent too long for Superman’s liking. While she’s glad he’s practicing caution, she still feels her annoyance rise. None of them should have been here in the first place.

“You.” Her second oldest. “Who are you, why are you here?” Superman has moved on now and Wonder Woman uncovers her child’s mouth.

“Go suck a cock you overgrown—” Her mouth is abruptly covered again but she is still yelling. Muffled. That gets the youngest started back up and the other two join in, though much more subdued. She fights the urge to roll her eyes.

She feels Superman’s arm around her tense, squeezing her a little tighter, and against her wishes her heartbeat spikes for a second. She prays he isn’t listening to it. “That’s enough!” he commands the room, and her children stop fighting and the muffled voices quiet to grumbling then cease altogether.

“Man, Bats is gonna be so pissed when he gets back,” they all hear Flash mutter. She feels herself tense at that, and glares at the floor before her. This is getting old quick. She considers rearing her head back to get the hand off her mouth, and while the effect would have stunned others, all it will result in with Superman is a bruised head and tighter restraint.

“Mmf…” she tries calmly. Hopes he’ll release her mouth so she can speak. He does and she takes a moment to steel herself to explain. All the kids start up again however.

“Stop.” They don’t, it only gets worse. “Stop!” she growls at them. They’re all glaring at her now, for whatever reason, she can’t fathom. “I’m Bruce,” she tells them. The kids are yelling again, at her, at each other, fighting the holds they’re all in. Her youngest gets lose, and Flash looks like he’s horrified when his arm is twisted behind himself to the point of breaking.

“Father, how could you?!” Damian yells at her.

“Father?” Superman whispers in confusion behind her.

“Stand down Damian!” she tells him, her frustration rising.

“You said they wouldn’t be here! You said they were told that—” she accuses but Alfred cut her off, coming down the stairs from the Manor far too calmly for the situation in her opinion.

“I did inform them.” He’s got a tray of their drink orders in his hands on his silver platter. He sets them down at the computers. “Please release them Master Clark, they are very busy.”

Superman wrenches away from her, causing her to stumble forward. Her kids are all released as well and Damian grumbles before releasing Flash. He rushes off, presumably, to hide behind Superman.

“Bruce? What happened to you?” Wonder Woman asks, stepping around Jason who is glaring at Dick again. They lunge at each other and are back to fighting. Bruce said no weapons and let them at it. Jason had called Dick Dixie and Dick came back with Jacey. Damian was their unofficial ref. Tim had been helping her at the computers when they had been jumped.

Superman is looking at her like she’s a pile of green kryptonite, and keeping enough distance from her to make her feel like just that. She tries not to think about how much that hurts.

“Something happened, and now we’re women. We’ve been trying to fix it but were rudely interrupted. I thought you all understood an order when it was issued to you.” She glares at each and every one of them. Tim is back at the computers, picking up where Bruce left off, drinking her coffee as she does.

“But what happened? I mean, Spooky, you’re hot. And I’m feeling weirdly attracted to you and there’s some majorly mixed feelings in here,” he points to his chest, ignoring the glare she is sending his way. From behind Superman, Flash pipes up his agreement.

Superman is still trapped in his own mind when she hears a crack. She whips around and sees Dick and Jason have taken the bo staffs from their place and are swinging at each other. Damian is pestering Tim, so no one is supervising the petty fight.

“Jason, Dick, I said no weapons!” she scolds. They don’t listen. She marches up to them, Dick stopping shy of smacking Bruce’s face with her staff and Bruce grabs Jason’s, ripping it from her hand. She glares at them both. She looks between the two of them as they pant, angry looks still on their faces. The Cave has fallen silent. “Separate corners of the mat. Calm down. When you can agree to my fighting terms then you can continue, for now, it’s off.” She takes the staff from Dick’s hands and returns them both to their places on the stand. Her girls separate.

She turns to face the League again. “We thought it was a drug bust until we got into the warehouse. Poison Ivy was clearly in the lower levels so we put on our oxygen masks to keep from inhaling her pheromones. But she had teamed up with Harley to make some kind of potion and cut our cords for our oxygen. We were worried it was sex pollen, but the effects, as you can see, did not turn out as we had thought they would.” She gestures down her body to her full breasts and widened hips.

They didn’t have any women’s clothing in the Manor, so they resorted to wearing their work out clothes, Bruce and Jason having to share with Dick because theirs were far too big. Dick‘s male form was big as well, but he was leaner than the two of them and slightly shorter. They just couldn’t keep their pants up in their female forms, even with the widened hips.

And bras were also a problem; they didn’t have any of those either now that Cass had moved out to stay with Stephanie. But it hadn’t been a real issue up until this point, with Green Lantern and Flash staring at her chest a little too intently. At least it was just her they were staring at and not her kids.

Superman still isn’t speaking, had stopped looking at her altogether, and she can feel the hurt starting to sink in now. She covers her chest with her arms and turns away from them all, walking back over to the computer and watching from over Tim’s shoulder as she works, Damian quieting at her presence. It should have been a clear dismissal to the League, but they linger around anyway, and Alfred offers drinks.

No one bothers her and Tim, and Damian eventually wanders back over to Dick. Jason heads upstairs to get away from everyone. “Bruce, this is useless…” Tim sighs out, leaning back in the chair and letting her hands fall limp on the keyboard. Bruce stares harder at the screen. They can’t just be stuck like this forever; there’s no possible way to explain it to anyone. They’d been lucky to make it back to the Cave with their manly clothes barely clinging to their slighter feminine bodies. Even her cowl had loosened and hung goofily on her face; she had barely been able to see through the eye slits.

“It’s not useless, Tim,” Bruce replies stubbornly. Tim yawns and Bruce looks down at her child. Tim hadn’t slept in almost as long as Bruce, having gone nearly three days on nothing but coffee and willpower. Bruce sighs and removes the refilled coffee cup from Tim’s hands.

“Bruce, what—”

She runs her fingers through Tim’s long hair. It’s falling far past her shoulders; all their hair had lengthened, Damian’s the least but it was longer all the same. “Go on upstairs Tim, you need some sleep,” she tells the girl softly, her fingers slipping from Tim’s hair and down to her shoulder.

Tim looks to the screen, then decides to go on upstairs anyway, rubbing at her eyes as she goes.

“Damian, go on up with Tim and go to bed,” Bruce calls over.

“But Grayson doesn’t have to go to bed yet!” the girl protested, Dick chuckling in the background.

“That’s because Dick’s all grown up and can go to bed whenever, you on the other hand need your sleep. Go on up,” Bruce says as she comes over, her guiding hand on Damian’s back, gently leading her toward the stairs.

“I’ll take Dami up Bruce, I’m gonna hit the sack anyway. It’s been a long day,” she offers and takes Bruce’s place by Damian.

She doesn’t protest and lets her eldest take her youngest back to the Manor.

It’s just her and the League now, Alfred having retired for the night nearly two hours ago. She heads back to the computer and continues staring at the same information her and Tim have been staring at for a week. The truth is, they aren’t really going to get anywhere without a sample of the chemical compounds that did this to them, and they just don’t have a sample, or have any means of getting one.

Tim is right, it’s useless. Or at least looks bleak at best. She doesn’t know what to do, and it’s very frustrating. Kate is out of the country, as are Steph and Cass, and Barbara is swamped with the Birds of Prey. Without a proper Batsuit she can’t go out and get Ivy or Harley and force information from them or get a sample. She isn’t even sure if they’re still out loose or if they’ve been caught or if they’re laying low and laughing about having turned the Batfamily into a bunch of women.

Probably laughing regardless, she decides. If she just had a sample she could…she doesn’t know, she’s hitting her limit of sleeplessness if she’s not able to think. Sleep would help. “Batman?”

Her head jolts up from where she had been falling asleep in her seat. “What?” she grumbles. It’s Martian Manhunter.

“Are you in need of assistance? We are your teammates, we would be happy to help in any way we can,” he offers, the League standing behind him and nodding their consent, all but Superman, who is hanging back and staring at a point passed her. She’s the broody one in their relationship, so to see him like this, and because of her, was saddening. She would probably have to talk to him.

“There is nothing to assist with,” she lies. Really, she doesn’t trust them around her rogues. They’re…not the kind of villains the League is used to dealing with. Well, maybe Flash, but even then, she doesn’t want the League getting hurt because her rogues’ unconventional means of evil.

“How long have you been like this?” Wonder Woman asks, giving her a once over.

Bruce stands from her seat, but leans against it and folds her arms.

“We’ve been stuck like this for a little over a week, but we’ve functioned just fine thus far. And Tim and I are close to a breakthrough. Now please leave and let me work,” she insists, gesturing to the exit of the Cave.

Most hesitate before nodding and leaving, they do have lives outside of superheroing. Superman is the last in the Cave. He’s not leaving, but he’s not talking to her either. She walks over to him. Only when she’s standing right before him and taking one of his hands into her own does he look at her, finally. When she was a man, Clark only had two inches on her, now he’s a solid head taller.

“Clark, it’s really me,” she tells him, can see the uncertainty on his face. He looks down at her hands in his own, takes them and exams them, folding their fingers together and giving a weak squeeze. She returns it.

“You…I couldn’t find your heartbeat. It still sounds different,” he tells her, still focused on their joined hands.

She feels a sympathetic smile coming onto her face. “A woman’s heart is slightly smaller than a man’s. Their hearts beat a little faster than a man’s would. Listen closely Clark. It’s still me,” she encourages, watching as he lets his eyes close and listens to her heart.

He’s quiet for a long time and she’s patient, lets him take his time. He drifts closer, until soon his head is resting on her chest, his face against her bosom and his ear pressed as close to her chest as he can get it, his arms around her waist. He’s floating, his knees bent and feet not touching the floor to compensate for the height he’s put himself at.

“I thought you were dead,” he whispers, “I couldn’t hear your heart and I thought…” he chokes out, then a tear runs down his face. She feels her throat tighten and she pets his hair, hoping to ground them both with the motion.

“I’m here Clark, I’m still here,” she assures. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, we thought we would have this solved a lot sooner than this. And I didn’t even think about how you wouldn’t be able to recognize the new heartbeat without a reason to look for it,” she can feel her vision fading and her legs weakening as she speaks. She knows she’s falling asleep where she stands, and Superman can feel it too, because she is vaguely aware of being scooped into his arms and taken up to the Manor.

When she wakes up she’s facing a broad chest and is a little too warm for comfort. She sighs and settles back in. It’s still dark out. She hasn’t slept long, but knowing Clark he isn’t about to let her return to her work without a full eight hours under her belt for the day.

Lips press into the top of her head and strong arms are pulling her closer. “Go back to sleep Bruce.” She hums, because she knows. She knows how he is and how he frets about her not taking care of herself. He must be so relieved she can’t go out as Batman right now.

“Clark, I don’t need any more sleep,” she tells him, tracing a finger down his arm. “I need to be myself again,” she whispers, closing her eyes and pulling her arm back to her chest. Her annoyingly soft and plump chest. She feels her throat tighten. That seems to be another side effect, all of them have become more sensitive, more susceptible to getting upset or annoyed. A matter not helped by the fact all of them had gotten a period and that had been awkward and confusing to go through. Quite the experience. A horrifying, if informative, experience.

They all seemed to be at the end of their cycles though, Tim’s and Dick’s having already ended, though they both had lingering cramps. Still, emotions were running high in the Wayne household and Alfred, though he’d never admit it, seemed to be at his wit’s end.

She feels a tear slip from her eye and she turns her back to Clark. She feels anger rise in her. Why was she even crying? Clark’s arms remain around her, but his breathing is slow, barely there at all, and she knows he’s falling back asleep. Soon he’s not breathing at all, but his heart pulses on, strong against her back, and he’s warm against her, always so warm.

She just needs to get a sample…that’s all she needs, then all of this can be fixed. Her girls will be themselves again, she will be herself again, and Clark…Clark can rest easy again knowing her heart is as it always has been.

She feels another kiss to her head. She had been so lost in thought she hadn’t felt Clark breathing again. “I love you Bruce. Now go to sleep.”

And so, she does. With a heavy heart she falls back asleep and hopes tomorrow will be better than the rest of her week has been.


End file.
